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THOMAS
,
HUGH
(
1673
-
1720
),
herald and antiquary
,

son of
WilliamThomas
,
merchant
, of
London
, by
Petronilla
his wife, daughter of
WilliamBrand
of
Lincoln's Inn
. [He was b.
30 June 1673
in
Fetter Lane
, and christened
1 July
in
S. Dunstans-in-the-West
, and] was descended from an old family (
Roman Catholic
, it is said) of
Llanfrynach
, near
Brecon
, but his grandfather,
RogerThomas
, had sold the ancestral home. His ancestor,
Thomas ap John
(d.
1616
— his tombstone is in
Llanfrynach
church), had written the history of
Brecknock
and the manuscript was in the possession of
HughThomas
. This
Thomas ap John
's ancestry could be traced back another five generations to
Hywel Gam
(
TheophilusJones
,
Hist. Brecknock
, 3rd edn., iv, 39). Unfortunately, we know very little about
HughThomas
himself. He must have become interested in
antiquarian research
at an early age. About
1698
he wrote a dissertation on the history of
Brecknock
(the manuscript is now in the
Bodleian Library
, while a copy, probably incomplete, is in the
National Library of Wales
—
N.L.W. MS. 777
) which was used and quoted from by
TheophilusJones
; he also
compiled a large collection of genealogies
(also used to some extent by
TheophilusJones
) which is now among the
Harleian manuscripts
in the
British Museum
; see
EdwardOwen
,
Cat. of Welsh MSS. in the British Museum
, ii (full index). Other papers in the same collection include letters addressed to him by
EdwardLhuyd
,
WilliamLewes
of
Llwynderw
, and other antiquaries.

By
1703
he had become
deputy to Garter King-at-arms
, and it appears from a letter sent to him (
1710-11
) by
WilliamLewes
that he had the sole right of
registering Welsh genealogies
apart from those relating to the counties of
Cardigan
and
Radnor
. He had intended to publish the
Historic of Great Britain … ’til the Death of Cadwaladr
, written by
JohnLewis
of
Llynwene
, with some additions of his own, but this did not appear until
1729
(see
FrancisPayne
's article in
Y Llenor
,
Oct. 1935
). The
Golden Grove Book of Pedigrees
, now in the
P.R.O.
, is based on the work of
HughThomas
and
WilliamLewes
.

HughThomas
lived in
Bloomsbury.
He d.
22 Sept. 1720
, and was buried in
S. Martin-in-the-fields
; his will is dated
14 Sept. 1720
(
EdwardOwen
, op. cit., ii, 491) and was proved
6 Oct.
(
Trans. Carm. Antiq. Soc
., xv, 60). (The dates
1715
and
1721
given in various editions of
TheophilusJones
and in other books are, of course, incorrect.) As he had no children, his widow
Margaret
, daughter of
GeorgeWood
of
Abergavenny
, was the sole beneficiary under the will, apart from certain legacies. His collection of pedigrees and other manuscripts was left to
RobertHarley
,
earl of Oxford
, and so, ultimately, came to the
British Museum
. He had a brother who, according to the will, was heavily in his debt and had been a burden to him all his life; yet he left him ten pounds. But, according to
TheophilusJones
,
Harley
gave this brother a substantial sum of money, ‘as he was very poor,’ by way of thank-offering for the manuscripts. Two of
HughThomas
's kinswomen (one of whom, at least, was probably his sister) lived at
Brecon
.

Sources:

Theophilus Jones
,
History of the County of
Brecknock
(3rd imp.), f.n. in i, 30;